Pest Management

As a formally named concept, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) emerged in the late 1960s in response to the vast expansion of use of synthetic pesticides after World War II. The basis of this concept was that rather than depending on the calendar to determine when and where treatments should be made, applications should be “supervised”…administered based on risk, as determined by trained plant health care professionals. Although simple in concept (do what needs to be done, where it needs to be done, when it needs to be done), true implementation of advanced IPM can be extraordinarily complex, in that a management system must consider the biology of the plant, the biology of the pest, the growing conditions, and the effectiveness of available management tools. Taken together, there is an overwhelming number of combinations of management scenarios. However, given consistent care, attention to detail, and a thorough understanding of the plants and the pests that damage them, site-specific management plans can be developed and implemented that can achieve the objective of IPM: acceptable control of pest injury with minimal risk of collateral ecological harm. The foundation of IPM is a program of periodic inspections (ideally 8 visits per year), during which all plants are assessed in terms of insect, disease, nutritional, and physiological health. After inspection, plants are treated as needed with the most advanced biological, chemical, and cultural management tools, and the findings of each visit are summarized and reported to you in writing. At Burkholder Plant Health Care, our approach is to put our training and experience to work for you, ensuring that your landscape gets the attention and tailored management that it deserves.

In an integrated pest management program, interaction among all landscape plants (and all pests of these plants) are considered in treatment recommendations. Sometimes, a landscape can be generally healthy, even when there is a specific threat to a small portion of the plants. Similarly, some plants require rapt attention and intensive treatment to keep them damage-free. In these cases, we adopt a targeted pest management approach, dictated by the timing and susceptibility of a specific pest on a specific plant type. Targeting specific pests in this way complements integrated pest management, permitting control of the most difficult-to-control pests without subjecting the entire landscape to intensive management and upsetting the entire ecological balance of the landscape.

• Invasive Species Management
• Pests of Human and Animal Health
• Organic Pest Management
• Pest Management on Edible Crops